


D is for Divided, U is for Unified

by Sharpiefan



Category: Hornblower (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 11:03:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3765757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sharpiefan/pseuds/Sharpiefan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aboard HMS <i>Renown</i> during the events of Mutiny and Retribution. This was the fic put up for the deadline of Sarlania's Alphabet Soup challenge as Divided We Fall, United We Stand was nowhere near completion at the time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Divided

**Author's Note:**

> This was not the fic I had planned to write for Sarlania's Alphabet Soup challenge. That is the work that became Divided We Fall, United We Stand. This covers the same basic idea, but from a different viewpoint, so I hope that when you read my longer work, you will not think I have managed to repeat myself. It comes in two parts, each part covering one of the letters for the challenge.

It was surprising how divided the ship felt, to Hornblower's mind. The Captain, the one who was supposed to unify the disparate groups – sailors, Marines, officers – had only managed to drive a wedge between them. It seemed there was little loyalty to be had. No, he corrected himself. It was not that there was no loyalty, it was just that people didn't know who to be loyal to.   
  
Matthews and Styles – the bosun and one of the bosun's mates – were loyal to him and to Mister Bush and Mister Kennedy. The Marines were loyal... to whom? Their duty lay with the Captain. As did his, of course.  
  
He was loyal to the Captain. Or was trying to be. But the Captain saw disloyalty at every turn. And seeing that was bringing division to the ship.  
  
Doctor Clive had served with the Captain for many years. There were rumours that they had been in the same ship at the Nile. His loyalty lay with the Captain, and he did not see the division that the ship was under.  
  
The Marines were themselves divided. Oh, not in so many words, not where he could hear them. But in looks, glances, the particular expression of the sentries' eyes as he passed them on his inspections of the ship. He knew some of them had heard the Captain's outbursts, had seen the effects and his treatment of Mister Wellard. Others, aware that the Captain was next to God on his own ship had, perhaps, mistaken him for God Himself, allowing that he could do no wrong.  
  
It was going to lead to disaster unless they could do something to combat it.  
  
Separate groups, torn apart.  
  
Divided.


	2. Unified

What brought the disparate groups together, in the end, was _Renown_ herself. Thirty-three men ran in one night and the ship came under fire from the Spanish, safe in their fort, even as _Renown_ grounded hard. The Captain could only think that everyone was plotting against him, though Hornblower had tried to reassure him, again and again, that nobody was plotting anything.  
  
A meeting in the hold could have been construed as mutiny by anyone who hadn't been aboard _Renown_ for the last few months. There was nothing the Lieutenants could do, they decided unanimously. They would have to wait.   
  
And then there was an accident. A grating had been moved so they could get down to the hold, and the Captain, suspicious as ever, had decided to go on the prowl. He'd heard something, turned, seen someone and paranoia had struck. He'd stepped backwards and fallen.  
  
Hornblower will always feel guilty about that.  
  
In the end, the Captain's predictions came true, because he had made them come true. Hornblower swallowed as the Captain's pistol pointed unwaveringly at him. Doctor Clive seemed unsure of what to do but finally declared that the Captain was unfit for command, and he was escorted to his cabin by Sergeant Whiting and two Marines, their coats blood-bright in the sunlight.   
  
Had they done the right thing? Hornblower doesn't think he will ever know.   
  
They fire the cannon, a useless broadside that breaks the trap they are held in as the ship is rocked by the guns' recoil They should sail away now, but they are at war with the Spanish. If Captain Sawyer is unable to carry out the orders given to him, perhaps the officers can prove their loyalty to him and do so themselves?  
  
The memories will never leave him, as he lays in his bed and stares up at the ceiling. He doesn't think he can remember everything, though. Nor does he want to.  
  
 _A life for a life_ is the only thing he can remember. And he took Captain Sawyer's life. Not with his own hand, but he took it from him by forcing the doctor to confine him to his cabin. Where he was when the Spanish prisoners they had taken broke free and tried to retake the ship, and shot him and the young midshipman, Mister Wellard.  
  
He had torn Archie's coat open after that short brutal fight, to discover his shirt red with blood, bright as a Marine's coat against the white linen of his shirt.  
  
He was dying, Mister Kennedy. Unrivalled among Hornblower's friends. And he knew he did not want to live if Kennedy died. So he prepared to lie.  
  
Only Kennedy, bright, glorious, tragic Kennedy got there first, describing something that hadn't happened. He had pushed the Captain, causing his final, fatal fit of madness.  
  
Together, they had stood against the world. Now, he must go on alone. “It's my gift. Take it,” Kennedy had said. His final words.  
  
The door swung, unlocked, unbolted.  
  
 _If a house is divided against itself, how can it stand?_  
  
Unified.


End file.
